The Fuzz Face is an

effects pedal An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

for

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

, used also by some

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck The ...

players. It is designed to produce a distorted sound referred to as "fuzz", originally achieved through accident such as broken electrical components or damaged speakers.

History

Arbiter Electronics Ltd. first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966. Later units bear the "Dallas Arbiter", "Dallas Music Industries Ltd.", "CBS/Arbiter Ltd." or "Dunlop Manufacturing Inc." name. The earliest units used

germanium Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors s ...

transistors upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

Silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...

transistors were used in later editions of the pedal. Silicon transistors provided for a more stable operation, but have a different, harsher sound. The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped metal housing.

Ivor Arbiter Ivor David Arbiter (31 December 1929 – 26 July 2005) was an English drum designer, manufacturer, instrument salesman, and entrepreneur. In his early career, he was the owner and operator of a specialty drum shop in the West End of London. La ...

"got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone stand with a cast iron base".http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gagar.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/CustomSounds/Categories/articles/fuzz "Fuzz Face" by David Morin The design was originally intended to be used as a microphone base for guitarists who sang. The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of distortion the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls and logo on the box suggests a face. The circuit is based on the shunt-series-feedback amplifier

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

- a standard in engineering textbooks.

Sola Sound Sola is a municipality and a Seaside resort in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Solakrossen. Other villages include Tananger, Hål ...

and Vox had been using the same circuit topology for their

Tone Bender {{Refimprove, date=April 2010 Tone Bender is the name of several fuzzboxes. Macari's Ltd, who also own the Sola Sound Brand, and who have built and sold the pedals since 1965 now own the Tone Bender trademark.
Arbiter Fuzz Face , fuzzboxes.org Dallas Music Industries made a final batch of Fuzz Face units in 1976 or 1977, shortly after moving to the United States. The company bought

Crest Audio Crest Audio, Inc is an American company that produces professional sound equipment, including audio mixers, power amplifiers, and loudspeakers. Crest Audio was founded in the late 1970s by Jean-Pierre Prideaux in California. Dallas Music Industri ...

in the 1980s and although it was operating under that name when it reissued the Fuzz Face in 1986, the units still bore the Dallas-Arbiter name. They made about 2000 Fuzz Faces until 1990.http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/FuzzFace%20reissue.html 1980's Crest Audio FuzzFace reissue storyhttp://www.foxroxelectronics.com/SCRAP.HTM Foxrox electronics scrapbook In 1993

Dunlop Manufacturing Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. is a manufacturer of musical accessories, especially effects units, based in Benicia, California, United States. Founded in 1965 by Jim Dunlop Sr., the company grew from a small home operation to a large manufacturer o ...

took over production, making a variety of Fuzz Face units until this day. Several germanium and silicon models are available. In 2013 smaller versions with status LEDs and AC power jacks were introduced. In the late 1990s Arbiter reissued the pedal as well.

Components

The circuit uses only a small number of components, plus a battery. Its sound is mostly dependent on the selection of transistors (type, h_fe and leakage in case of germanium transistors). As germanium transistors are sensitive to temperature, the amount of leakage is variable. Thus the bias voltages will shift up and down, so the sound produced by a germanium Fuzz Face may change as the equipment heats up or cools down. Also, the battery is part of the circuit. Variances in voltage and internal resistance can make an audible difference. According to

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

’s guitar tech Roger Mayer, Jimi would buy half a dozen Fuzz Faces and mark the one he liked best only to find out that he didn't like it in a different environment.http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Aug/Roger_Mayer_Talks_Fuzz.aspx Premier Guitar: Roger Mayer Talks Fuzz Despite popular belief that Arbiter used randomly selected pairs of transistors, Dennis Cornell, one of the engineers who worked for Arbiter in the 1960s,https://www.vintageguitar.com/3050/arbiter-fuzz-face-reissue/ Vintage Guitar: Arbiter Fuzz Face Reissue described in a 2016 ''Guitarist'' magazine article how he auditioned them for their sonic properties. Early units used NKT275 germanium transistors. Later on, BC183L, BC183KA, BC130C, BC108C, BC209C and BC239C silicon transistors were used. The American made versions used BC109C transistors.Analog Man Sun Face and Fuzz Face Page
/ref> Arbiter reissues used AC128s. Hendrix also switched to the silicon transistors, but they created additional difficulties on stage, since they are much more susceptible to receiving AM radio signals, which were then audible through the guitar amplifier.

Use

The Fuzz Face's continuing popularity and status as a classic may be explained by its many famous users, which include

,http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=350 Dunlop - Jimi Hendrix Fuzzface

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

,http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=73 Gilmourish - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

Duane Allman Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ...

, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...

,http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/fuzzface.html Who Tabs - Pete's Gear - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to: Music *Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist * Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone Politics * Eric Joh ...

Modern Guitars - Eric Johnson Interview and

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

."Get Back" by the Beatles; Apple, London, 1969"Beatles Gear" by Andy Babiuk and Tony Bacon; Backbeat, 2002 The Fuzz Face has a low

input impedance The input impedance of an electrical network is the measure of the opposition to current ( impedance), both static ( resistance) and dynamic ( reactance), into the load network that is ''external'' to the electrical source. The input admittance (the ...

and thus is very sensitive to the guitar pickup. By rolling the volume knob, the guitar player can decrease the gain of the pedal and get a clean or crunch sound, while still having all the gain when the volume knob is on maximum. For the same reason, Fuzz Face pedals react differently when placed directly after the guitar than when after other pedals or after a

buffer amplifier A buffer amplifier (sometimes simply called a buffer) is one that provides electrical impedance transformation from one circuit to another, with the aim of preventing the signal source from being affected by whatever currents (or voltages, for a cu ...

. While some claim

Wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...

s are known to be troublesome with Fuzz Faces, artists such as Hendrix were known to use them together to spectacular effect. His signal flow for live performance involved first plugging his guitar into a wah-wah pedal, then connecting the wah-wah pedal to a Fuzz Face, which was then linked to a Uni-Vibe, before connecting to a Marshall amplifier.{{cite book, last1=Shapiro, first1=Harry, last2=Glebbeek, first2=Caesar, title=Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, year=1995, orig-year=1990, edition=New and Improved, publisher=St. Martin's Press, isbn=978-0-312-13062-6, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JB1W2dn31rwC p. 689.

References

External links

R.G. Keen: The Technology of the Fuzz FaceFuzz Central: Arbiter Fuzz Face; Schematics
Effects units

History

Components

Use

See also

References

External links